# First Minister tells charities to put aside normal activities and plan for No Deal

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2019/03/22/first-minister-tells-charities-to-put-aside-normal-activities-and-plan-for-no-deal/
- Published: 2019-03-22T08:40:48+00:00
- Author: Melanie May

**The Rt Hon Mark Drakeford, First Minister, abandoned his pre-planned speech at
yesterday’s gofod3 to issue a call to action to the third sector, telling it to 
put aside normal activities, and plan for a No Deal Brexit. **

 

Some no-deal plans are already being activated across the country such as Kent County
Council’s traffic management plan Operation Fennel, with a decision on whether to
implement Operation Yellowhammer, the national contingencies for food, medicine 
and banking due to be made in the next few days.

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The First Minister was speaking ahead of a panel discussion by Wales Civil Society
Forum on Brexit – a partnership between [WCVA](https://www.wcva.org.uk/), which 
runs [gofod3](https://www.gofod3.cymru/), and the Wales Governance Centre, Cardiff
University.

 

He said:

 

> “In the short run, the chaos on our roads, in our airports, in supplies of food,
> in the way that we keep water safe, all of these things which we never imagined
> we would see in our lifetimes, all of those are real and substantial risks.
> “There is a week still to go. We have worn the patience of our partners in the
> European Union, as thin as you can imagine. But we may still be having to rely
> on their willingness to help us find a way out of the hole that has been dug for
> us here at home.
> “In those circumstances, we will have to mobilise every resource that we have 
> in Wales, to help those who are the most vulnerable in our society, not to be 
> overwhelmed by the difficulties that they may face. And that means Government,
> of course, it means our public services, of course, but it means all of the organisations
> that are represented in this room as well.
> “Because it will be the resilience of our civil society, of those organisations
> that work on the ground and who know where vulnerable people live, and are able
> to turn up on doorsteps, and check they are okay, and do things that they are 
> unable immediately to manage for themselves. Those will be the resources that 
> we will rely on, in those days that follow from a Brexit of the sort that I have
> described.
> “And this is a very good opportunity today, to have everybody together, to test
> again the strength of the movement that we know we are lucky enough to have, here
> in Wales. And to say in all seriousness that, over the next week, we all have 
> to be thinking and planning and putting to one side the things we normally would
> be doing in order to make sure, if that contribution is needed, the voluntary 
> and the third sector here in Wales will do what it has done so many times in the
> past, and step up to the challenge we will have to face together.
> “Even if we find a different way through […] provided the Prime Minister is willing,
> even at this final hour, to pivot towards it, to talk to other parties in a genuine
> way of seeking a different solution. Even if we manage that, the stresses and 
> strains that Brexit has created in our society will not easily evaporate.
> “If we have a transition period, if we have a different destination, the healing
> process will need to begin as soon as we are able to make it. And in that healing
> process, as I say, we have to find respectful language for people who have taken
> a different view. And to find a way of having a conversation with them that brings
> them and others back around that single table.
> “And make sure that they have a voice, alongside others, in shaping the sort of
> Wales we want to see. A Wales that is open. A Wales that is tolerant. A Wales 
> that welcomes people from other parts of the globe. A Wales that is determined
> that we continue to be a European country. In the European mainstream.
> “Working even harder than we have in recent years to get that message across to
> those many friends we have in other parts of Europe. And the third sector has 
> played such an important part in this: informing those networks, in creating those
> friendships. But those people know that, for Wales at least, we will go on making
> the effort to sustain those relationships beyond Brexit and into the future.
> “I’m sorry to have struck such a bleak note this afternoon. But the days really
> are seeping through our fingers and the reality of what could happen is staring
> us in the face. We all have to find ways, in the next few days, of mobilising 
> together, so we are as best prepared as we possibly can, to face what we might
> have to deal with next week.”

 

> [#gofod3yn](https://twitter.com/hashtag/gofod3yn?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> fyw gyda | live withWales Civil Society Forum on Brexit | Fforwm Cymdeithas Sifil
> Cymru ar BrexitBrexit… [https://t.co/Gkt5gNXlIh](https://t.co/Gkt5gNXlIh)
> — WCVA | CGGC (@WCVACymru) [March 21, 2019](https://twitter.com/WCVACymru/status/1108749596346347521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

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